Friday, November 2, 2012

Fortress Falls: constructing the display board

OK! You can't have a tournament army without a display board, so we have some WIP images of the construction. If you recall the story line, the Knights of the Blood Rose have been pushed back to their last redoubt, the Fortress Falls. I will be using techniques very similar to those used on the terrain board that we made for the Wandering Dragon Shoppe.

I started out with a 2 x 2 piece of masonite. The rocks would be built up with layers of pink foam.

To make each level have more complexity and smaller levels, I first cut out the basic shape of what I wanted. Note the extendable exacto blade. Those knives are perfect for this! I have a hot foam wire, but it was way too cold and way too late to be using that outside. Plus, I don't have the attachments that I really need. so, you go with what you know!

By cutting horizontally with the extended blade, you can cut out parts of each level to create various hieghts for your outcroppings.

This can be easier and quicker than piling up many layers of foam!

If you save those pieces you cut out, as you saw in the previous terrain post, you can make some very nice slate style outcrops!

You can see that I kept building up, layer by layer, making sure to vary which way my cuts went to make more interesting textures

These images give you a real sense of where the water will be flowing...

Layering continues. I had a different idea for the tops of the cliffs, but time is not on my side, and I have to scale way back on those plans. Bummer!

One thing I wanted to keep from the original plans is the island watchtower. I started to lay that out at this stage, as well as the outlying flatter terrain, on which the Khand and Easterling miniatures will be placed. Remember, the chariots are the key weapon that turned the tide in the long war between the forces of Rhuin and the Knights of the Blood Rose. They were able to defeat the cavalry, thus pushing the elves out of their ancient cities...

Once I had rough cut everything, it was time to glue it all together, using standard wood glue. It is very strong, and dries relatively fast. Blue painter's tape was used on each level to keep them from shifting or warping, and giving it lots of extra strength!

Now I start to build up that central island. This guards the entry into the final undamaged elven cities.

The island built up to its highest point. Our next exciting episode will show the texturing of all the different areas of the board! Stay tuned...